Playtime with Adam

Not forgetting how much fun Janelle had with Hello Ling in August, we brought her to PLAYtime! Hello Adam last Saturday. And this time, the brother joined in too.

While Hello Ling is all about discovering light, Adam is about movement. The short play is about joining Adam and his friends as they hop, skip, leap and bounce around in the playground. Initially I was worried that Jayven may not enjoy the play but my worries was unfounded. He was drawn into the play, watching their movements intently and it took a while before he decided to join in the fun by standing up and move his body along with other children.

It was a fun interactive experience for the lil ones once again, and I am glad that I brought Jayven along. The only shortfall was that the character Adam did not match the image in the poster, which led to the girls asking where was Adam in the play. I guess the production house did not take that into consideration at all, which they should have though. Children tend to associate the image in the poster with the character in the play.

Overall, I feel that the PLAYtime! interactive theatre series are engaging for the little children. They promote learning through play while having fun at the same time. Looking forward to the next play Hello Yasmin in February 2014.

All about "floating". One of the rare shots that I managed to capture as Jayven was holding on to my phone at the first half of the play.

The children are captivated as the colour changes.

One of the best blur shots of the 3 lil princesses as they are always jumping or moving during the play.

All the children ran after the colourful balls which roll out at the finale. That was Jayven's back view as he picked up the balls and placed them into the plastic container.

The happy 3 princesses at the poster after the play.

And the lil boy was left out in the earlier shot with the 3 girls.

Managed to capture this funny expression while he was waiting for his tea break at The Toast Box after the play.

Terrible twos come early

My boy has just turned 19 months few days back. But it seems that he is at the "terrible twos" stage now.

This lil cute charmer behaves like a terror when he starts his temper tantrums. He will scream, cry,  throw himself onto the floor, swing his fists and kick his legs when he don't get what he want or when we want him to do something eg take a shower. The word "NO" is dominating his vocabulary now.

This "terrible twos" behavior can drive us crazy. It get pretty frustrating and very trying indeed. Most of the times, I will just leave him alone and not give in when he is throwing his tantrums. I do not want him to think that he can get his way by displaying such undesirable behavior. Usually after a while, he will come running to me for assurance and comfort. My heart aches whenever I leave him to cry and scream but I guess discipline has to start early to tackle the "terrible twos".

That's how he throw himself on the floor

Well, not necessarily the floor only

When he was out and having his meltdown

We have never encountered "terrible twos" with our firstborn. At most, she was more whiny and clingy with occasional meltdowns but we attributed that to her sensitivity about my second pregnancy as she wanted my attention.

Hope that we have seen the worse of "terrible twos" and it will only get better.

Honorable is the word

"That is a honorable thing to do."

This is the best compliment that I have received since I have become a SAHM. I met up with my gynae (I am not pregnant again, in case you were wondering) and she was doing my profile update when she realized that I have left my job to look after my kids. And her reply was "that is a honorable thing to do." Yes, indeed.

To make that major decision to leave our jobs with no income. To dedicate ourselves in caring and nurturing our kids. To have lesser time or no time for ourselves and our social life. To receive "compliments" that doesn't help in making us feel any better. Yes. this is a honorable task indeed.

While stay home parents get to spend more time with the kids as compared to working parents, we have our fair share of ups and downs too. There are good days that the kids are simply angelic and everything goes smoothly . But there are also bad days that the kids are just so cranky or clingy that nothing get done (not even a toilet break without the kids crying or screaming their lungs out and banging on the door).

If working parents can feel frustrated with the incessant crying, meltdowns and tantrums of their kids when they are home in the night time or over the weekends, imagine how stay home parents maintain their sanity.

To all the stay home parents out there, I would like you to know that you are doing a honorable job . You have my utmost respect for making that major decision. And when the going gets tough, stay positive and motivated!

Counting down to Sail Away

This is so exciting! After much deliberation and comparison, we have decided to book our family vacation with Royal Carribean. This time, we are going with my parents-in-laws. It's also a dream come true for them as they have been wanting to go for a holiday with the lil ones. As my FIL's lung is weak, he is not able to travel far (by air) and to countries with cold climates. Hence, the cruise vacation is the ideal vacation for the entire family.

I have been on a cruise before when I was young and it was mainly a gambling ship. So it was a pretty boring vacation as there was not much entertainment or activities on board. Thus, activities for the kids were one of the priorities in planning this vacation. And i was thrilled when i discovered that there is Dreamworks Experience on board Mariner of the Seas so I'm certain that the kids will have an enjoyable experience.

I can't wait for the vacation as I'm looking forward to family time, grandparents and grandchildren time, couple time and ME TIME! I'm planning to stay on board even when the ship dock at the port as it seems that there are many things to do on board.

Counting down...

Psst.. Anyone has traveled with Royal Carribean before? All comments or tips are deeply appreciated.

Family Vacation @ Tokyo - Day 8, Sayonara Tokyo

The alarm went off at 3am. Took alot of effort to pull myself out of the bed. Freshen up, woke my hubs, did one last check on all belongings to make sure nothing was left behind and we checked out. The transport that Aunt Shujun has kindly arranged for us was at the driveway when we came out of the hotel. The skies was still dark and everyone sleepy. Much to my surprise, Janelle woke up on the journey to the airport.

Reached the airport at 4.30am. Jayven woke up when we were about to check in. And both of them appeared wide awake instead of sleepy. So my assumption that they would be sleeping all the way till boarding was wrong. It was super early hence we went to a 24hours cafe to get coffee and some light breakfast.

Our flight was scheduled to depart at 6.30am and the boarding gate opened at 6.15am. The souvenir shop next to our boarding area opened at 6am and I spotted the Matcha kit kat that I have been looking for. So happy to have gotten my Matcha and Sakura Matcha kit kats (heard great reviews about Sakura Matcha) just before I left Tokyo.

Not long after the flight took off, the lil ones fell asleep. I prayed hard that they would sleep through the flight but it never happened. An hour plus later, both of them woke up. Janelle could not stretch her long legs while asleep so she woke up. Jayven could not toss and turn while being zip up in the bassinet so he woke up too. So they started to play and ran about (to their grandparents seated one row behind us).

Needless to say, I was not able to catch any wink during the flight back.

Wide awake at 5am at Haneda Airport

Cheeky boy saw jiejie at the railing and followed suit

Looking at the plane in boarding area

The boy that cannot sit still. During turbulence, the air crew will always remind us to strap him with the infant seat belt. Then he would struggle and scream.

Overall, it has been a fun yet tiring trip. I'm grateful that my parents could join us in the trip as they have been a great help in manning the kids thus the opportunities for time alone with my hubs. I know it has been a tiring trip for my parents too but I hope that they also enjoyed themselves.

Looking through all the photos that we have taken in the trip, I realised that we have created many beautiful memories as a family. I feel so blessed that we could go on family vacation and experienced new things together. I love how a vacation can bond the family even closer - relaxed mood, quality time with kids and hubs, the siblings doing things together and having fun.

Time to plan for the next vacation! Hah!

Family Vacation @ Tokyo - Day 7, First Avenue Tokyo Station & Shinjuku

The last day in Tokyo. But we have not gotten the various kit kats that I would like to get. Hence we did a last minute research online the night before and saw that we could get the different flavours of kit kats in one of the shops near the Ramen Street in First Avenue Tokyo Station.

We spotted 2 key words. Kit Kats & Ramen! I like ramen and I would love to have a bowl of ramen again before we leave Japan. So the plan was to check out First Avenue Tokyo Station in Tokyo Train Station in the morning and Shinjuku in the later noon.

My parents keeping the kids entertained in the train journey. Or should I say my kids was keeping my parents entertained instead? Hehe

Tokyo Train Station is really big. After asking for directions, we finally found First Avenue Tokyo Station.

We decided to explore the Character Street in First Avenue first. It is an underground street that is lined with popular character shops. It was fun to be walking through the street, looking at all the cute lovely characters. It took me alot of determination to say no most of the times to my girl who wanted to get everything that caught her eyes (& mine too). Well, we bought souvenirs from Hello Kitty shop for the girls and a toy from Lego shop for Jayven.

After which, we walked further down to Ramen street to check out the stores. It was lunch time then and there were long queues at each store. And we spotted the shop that we intended to get our kit kats at the end of Ramen Street. Gotten many flavours such as Strawberry, Apple, Azuki (Japanese red bean), Wasabi but no sight of Matcha kit kats. I found out from the staff that they are only available in the airport.

As we were not too hungry (and we did not wish to join in the queues), we decided to visit Daimaru first. With no intention to shop for clothes, we ended up at the food section again. I was very keen to buy the grapes as they looked big and juicy. But selling at SGD20 per pack, I could not bring myself to buy them (I may probably swallow the stems too).

At approximately 1.30pm, we returned to Ramen Street and the queue has cleared by then. When it comes to dining, space was a deciding factor as we always have the stroller with us. Hence we decided on a ramen store that seem slightly more spacious, not too crowded but must have crowd (cos it will means that the food is good. Hard to please huh!) and the ramen picture on the vending machine looks yummy. Same as the earlier ramen store in Odakyu, we have to spilt into 2 tables as they do not cater to big groups and the food was served relatively fast. Yes yes, no pictures again as Janelle was starving and I had to attend to her immediately. Jayven was asleep then so no ramen for him. The ramen tasted better than those in Singapore but we still prefer the ramen in Odakyu basement.

Hence after satisfying our ramen cravings, we made our way back to Shinjuku. I went to Fancl in Lumine 2 to get my skincare needs before we proceeded to Odakyu again (I wanted to get my strawberry cake). There was a outdoor playground at Level 9 so we brought the kids there for play and my parents get to rest their tired feet before we continue to shop.

The playground

We went to the children department, gotten some kids' stuff and proceeded to basement again. At this point, the kids started their crankiness as it was past their nap time. Janelle was super cranky and she refused to walk any further. For the first time, she sat down in the middle of the pavement and refuse to get up and walk. My goodness! We did not want to give in to her tantrums so my hubs and I just moved on. She started crying (loudly!) and even though my dad offered to carry her, she did not want to budge. Seeing that she was not getting her way, she got up and ran towards my direction asking to be carried. I was carrying Jayven then (who was also kicking a fuss and refused the stroller). My dad offered to carry Jayven and he started to cry out loud. He wanted me to carry him whenever he is hungry or tired. So there we were, with 2 cranky tearful kids. It seems almost impossible to continue shopping, hence we decided to buy food from the basement and eat in hotel room. Thanks goodness my boy fell asleep after a while and with Janelle koala-ing on me, she fell asleep soon after too.

Just when we were about to walk back to the hotel, we came across Hokkaido Fair and my hubs was very keen to buy the famous Hokkaido White Chocolate Lover Biscuits. So we went in search for the biscuits. To my astonishment, he was actually tasked by his colleague to buy 4 boxes of the biscuit and we wanted to get for my in-law and family so we bought a total of 8 boxes and we requested for them to be packed in a carton box (to be checked in as we have no more space in our luggage).

On the way back, we chanced upon drugstore and I went to get the collagen jelly requested by my sister. However, they do not have the quantity we want so we went back to the hotel to offload our bags and have our dinner first. Just when my hubs and I was about to leave the room and continue to search for drugstore to get the collagen jelly, my girl woke up. Told her not to finish the strawberry cake slice but it was gone when I came back. Boo!

It was the last night in Shinjuku so my hubs and I just simply walked the streets of Shinjuku, enjoying each other company while my parents look after the kids.

Then we went back to the hotel to shower the kids and packed the luggages. We gotten too much souvenirs and some large bulky items so it was impossible to squeeze everything into 2 big luggages and 1 medium luggage. Eventually we packed some items into Janelle's new My Melody sling bag and into a hand-carry big paper bag.

Next we set the alarm to 3am as our flight were scheduled to depart at 6.30am. Don't ask me why our flight was so early. That's another long story. So the kids were dressed in their nicest sleepwear so that they can wear them on board (as I assumed that they would be sleeping all the way till boarding).

Family Vacation @ Tokyo, Day 6, Edo Wonderland

Rise and shine at 7.30am. Usual routine for the morning - water filled, diapers replenished, jackets packed, snacks packed. Changed the 2 sleepyheads while they continued to zzz. Time to set off at 8.30am.

Aunt Shujun was waiting for us at the hotel entrance driveway. Off we went on the journey to Nikko. After one and a half hour of travelling on the road, we stopped at a rest point for coffee. By this time, the kids were awake and breakfast served (milk and breads). We continued the journey for another hour before we finally reached our destination: Edo Wonderland aka Edo Mura.

This cultural village was strongly recommended by Aunt Shujun. Apparently it was her 4th visit to the village. The entry ticket was not cheap though. It costs 4,500 yen per adult. Lucky Aunt Shujun owns certain cards that granted us discounted tickets.

I read that Edo Wonderland is one of Japan's coolest attractions and it is the only place to experience the living history and culture of Edo period Japan. Every staff was dressed in traditional costumes and played certain roles such as ninjas, samurais, geisha and more. The public can also rent the costumes at a fee to explore the village. There are different fees based on what costume or what character you would like to dress up as. Initially we were pretty keen to dress the lil ones as ninjas which cost 3,100 yen each. But there was a queue and it took ages to dress one up so we gave up the idea and proceeded to explore the village.

The ticket booth

Entrance

Edo Wonderland mascot

We visited Ninja Kai Kai Tei House of Illusion. It is the ninja training house which was situated on a  slope and the house was slanted. When we stepped in, we realised the interior was also slanted and as we walked further, it became increasingly difficult to maintain our balance. And I was carrying Jayven. Took me so much effort not to lose my balance and fall inside. When we finally came out of the house, we could still feel the after effects. At this point, we hear an excited voice "I want to go into the house again!" Yes, that was Janelle. Surprisingly, she did not seem to be affected by the illusionary house and the gravity pull. But no one was keen to bring her back in for another round.

Spot Jayven, the ninja

Entrance of Ninja Kai Kai Tei

The interior of the illusionary house. Gotten this picture from the website as there was no way that we were able to take pictures while trying to balance ourselves,

Thereafter, we queued for a ninja show performance. It was an interesting and impressive performance between two clans of ninjas fighting for a secret scroll. It was confined in a small room to view the performance and the ninjas often appeared from nowhere, scaring the audience. I was worried that the lil ones may be frightened but it seems that both of them enjoyed the performance too.

Photo with the ninjas after the show

Lunch time. Actually we had our second round in this stall. Aunt Shujun mistook that there are no tables and chairs for this food stall hence we went to another restaurant with proper seating so that we can feed the lil ones first. Yet she strongly recommend the yakitori hence we went for second round and spotted 2 tables and benches.

Oishii yakitori bento. We ordered more subsequently.

We chanced upon Yaba Archery Range and Janelle wanted to try. And of cos she has her dearest daddy to guide her. I always love to watch daddy and the children doing things together. Bonding moments.

And the cheeky boy will always want to join in. He nearly went into the forbidden grounds ie shooting zone.

This girl simply love horse ride!

And my boy want to follow his jiejie too. So Aunt Shujun brought him along on her lap.

A shrine within the village

Edo Wonderland closes at 5pm when the skies turns dark. Hence we left the village at 3plus and proceeded to our next destination, Nikko National Park. We wanted to visit Kegon Waterfall and Toshugu Shrine. It took us another hour to travel from Edo Wonderland to Nikko National Park and the park closes at 5pm too.

Never did I expect that we have to drive up a mountainous road to get to the park. It was Aunt Shujun's first attempt driving to the park too so she was not familiar with the road. And by the time we reach the park, there were fog forming and skies are turning dark. Hence we decided to skip the park in case we get caught in the fog and darkness. Aunt Shujun carefully drove all the way down the many twists and turns on the mountainous road. It seems more challenging than the one in Genting Highlands.

Anyway we made it safely down the mountain. I can feel that Aunt Shujun was very stressed when she was driving down the "Initial D" road too. With the skies turning dark, we decided to travel back to Tokyo which is a 3 hours drive from Nikko. Halfway through the journey, my hubs jumped when he felt something warm flowing onto his jeans. Jayven's diaper was too full and leaked out onto his daddy's jeans. So we had to find the nearest rest point to clean and dry. And I realised that I never brought an extra set of clothes for the lil ones. Hence the poor boy had to make do without his pants while we continued the journey back to Tokyo.

It was a long journey back as we were caught in the highway jam. It was almost 8pm by the time we reached Tokyo. Yes, all of us were famished then. Hence we decided to go Takashimaya for dinner since it is near the hotel. We settled down in a Japanese restaurant specializing in soba and started feeding the lil ones when the food came. Needless to say, I have forgotten to take pictures of food again. Hah!

We really appreciate Aunt Shujun playing a good host especially over the weekend. We all know that driving long hours on the road is really tiring (we have spent approximately 7 hours travelling on the road). Furthermore, she has kindly arranged for pocket wifi and a local line for us so that we can stay connected on the move during our vacation. As her hometown is a 2 hours drive from Tokyo, she has booked a room in the hotel so that she can continue to catch up with my mum. I joined in the conversation for the last 30 minutes after my boy fell asleep in our room (Janelle followed my mum to Aunt Shujun's room to play).

The next day was our last full day in Tokyo and our flight was very early the following day hence Aunt Shujun would not be able to see us off at the airport.